On May 31st, 2012 the Maxwell family boarded a plane and moved to Swaziland to live at Project Canaan. I hope to update my blog on Saturday mornings and share, as honestly as I can, the highs and lows of our life in Africa. We are living on a farm in a remote part of this tiny Kingdom and are serving the community as well as the orphans and vulnerable children of the nation. The 365 day count down started on June 1st, 2011, but the real journey begins now. Thanks for joining us.

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Saturday, January 26, 2013

It is Saturday afternoon here in Taiwan, so I am a bit late
for “morning” in Swaziland, but still have a few hours before the sun comes up
in North America so I have a few extra hours to put my thoughts together for
this week’s blog.

Last night I posted a question on Facebook and asked what I
should blog about today? I had questions from Australia, Canada and the US so I
will take this opportunity to answer all of them.I hope this information is valuable and interesting.Thank you to each of you who posted a
question!

Question:Ann from Indiana asked:I would
love to hear the story of your friends in Taiwan and their involvement with and
support of Heart for Africa Swaziland.

Answer:Taiwan and Swaziland
have a very important political and diplomatic relationship. Swaziland is one of only 24
nations globally that recognizes Taiwan as being and independent nation from
China.This unique political
position provides an important platform for the two nations to work
together.Taiwan has a wellknown philosophy
that basically says (pardon my paraphrase), “Fifty years ago Taiwan was a
recipient of foreign aid and many other nations came to assist us in our time
of need.Now we must be givers of
foreign aid and help others who are in need as we once were.”Swaziland is a recipient of kindness
and support due to the unique partnership with Taiwan.

This philosophy was one of the reasons that
Mr. Lewis Lu starting bringing students from Changhua Senior Highschool to
Swaziland to serve the poor in 2007.His ambition, dedication and commitment manifested and grew into the
formation of the organization called Heart for Africa Taiwan with Mr.
Michael Chen, and their enthusiasm encouraged many other groups to get involved
including: other High Schools, the Catholic church, Christian schools and
churches, Universities, Hospitals, Lions Club International and Rotary
International).Due to Mr. Lu’s
efforts we will launch a group called Heart for Africa Japan on February 2nd
at the ONE WORLD conference in Osaka, Japan.I am always encouraged by and thankful for the never-ending
efforts of the people of Taiwan to help us in Swaziland.

Question:Lori from California asked: What are the greatest ‘needs’ in
Taiwan?They are doing so much for
Swaziland, how can we help/pray for them?

Answer:That is a tough one for me to
answer because I do not live here and am only a visitor.We are thankful for the love and
support that we get from our Taiwanese friends and that religion is not a
barrier to helping the orphans and vulnerable children of Swaziland.I am proud to say that my Buddhist
friends have joined with my Catholic friends, my Christian friends and my
non-Christian friends to help the orphans and vulnerable children of Swaziland
and I pray that each and every person is blessed abundantly for his or her
participation.

Question:Penny from Georgia asked: Talk about snake wrangling in Swaziland?

Answer:Now, Penny, you know we don’t
wrangle snakes in Swaziland!We just sprinkle mothballs all over the property and they go away! JThe truth is we have lots of really
nasty snakes that appear regularly on the farm including:Python, Spitting Cobra, Black Mamba,
Green Mamba and Puff Adder to name a few.We try to avoid them as much as they try to avoid us (and Brooke Sleeper
is working on a protocol for snakes bites on the farm).But we discourage ALL “wrangling”.

Question:Janet from Australia asked:What do you do to de-stress? From the day-to
day issues?

Spencer sitting in our favorite spot with the best vi

Answer:I find myself much less
stressed on a daily basis than ever before. When I was in business I carried
the burden of the company and the people I worked with every day.That was very stressful.When I worked at Heart for Africa in
Canada and the US I felt the burden of the work being done in Africa while I
sat millions of miles away. That
was very hard on me emotionally. Now that I live and work in Swaziland I feel
that I am doing the best that I can with what I have and that in itself gives
me great peace and joy.

BUT, at the end of
each and almost every day Ian and I (and sometimes Chloe) will sit out on our
patio at 6PM and enjoy the quiet and beauty of the farm. It brings us back to ‘center’
quickly and to a place of thanksgiving that is pure and real.We also love watching TV – that is our
big escape.We don’t really get
live TV, but watch series on DVD from beginning to end.Favorites include:Breaking
Bad, Friday Night Lights, 24, Alias
and for comedy Modern Family.

The view of the farm from our patio.

Question:Kim from Ontario, Canada asked: Please talk about the Moringa Tree and why
it is important?

Answer:The Moringa Tree is one of the many
crops we are growing on Project Canaan. To date we have planted more than 2,000
Moringa seeds, which have become seedlings used in with our church partners and
in our own Moringa fields.We
harvest the leaves, dry them, grind them and sell the powder to anyone who
would like to purchase it. One day we hope to have enough for export, but in
the meantime it is proving to have significant positive impact in the health of
some of our HIV workers at Project Canaan.

Moringa leaves being harvested by November volunteer team.

“In
developing tropical countries, Moringa trees have been used to combat
malnutrition, especially among infants and nursing mothers. Leaves can be eaten
fresh, cooked, or stored as dried powder for many months without refrigeration,
and without loss of nutritional value. Moringa is especially promising as a
food source in the tropics because the tree
is in full leaf at the end of the dry season when other foods are typically
scarce. Analyses of the leaf composition have revealed them to have significant
quantities of vitamins A, B and C, calcium, iron and protein. According to
Optima of Africa, Ltd., a group that has been working with the tree in
Tanzania, "25 grams daily of Moringa Leaf Powder will give a child"
the following recommended daily allowances:

Protein 42%, Calcium 125%, Magnesium 61%, Potassium 41%, Iron 71%, Vitamin A
272%, and Vitamin C 22%. These numbers are particularly astounding; considering
this nutrition is available when other food sources may be scarce.

Scientific research confirms that these humble leaves are a powerhouse of
nutritional value. Gram for gram, Moringa leaves contain: SEVEN times the
vitamin C in oranges, FOUR times the Calcium in milk, FOUR times the vitamin A
in carrots, TWO times the protein in milk and THREE times the Potassium in
bananas.” Source - www.naturalnews.com/022272.html

Question:Linda from Georgia asked: How about blogging about your hopes and
dreams for 2013?

Answer:It’s funny that you would ask that
while I am sitting in a guest room at a boarding school in Taiwan with my
16-year old daughter Chloe.Today,
my hopes and dreams for 2013 are that Chloe will find peace and joy in the
school that she is going to attend for the next two years of her life.She has gone through tremendous
transition over the past six years as we moved to Alpharetta, Georgia and then
to Swaziland, Africa.She has
supported our “calling” and the work that Ian and I are doing, but it has not
been easy and not been without personal sacrifice.Chloe is a beautiful young lady and the only thing that I
want more than her happiness is for her to be right where she is “supposed” to
be.We believe that God has a very
big plan for her life and the road ahead may not be easy and carefree, but I
believe with my heart and soul that it will be well worth the hard work it in
the end.Linda, thank you for
asking.

Saturday, January 19, 2013

First the good news. Yesterday Baby #24 arrived quite unexpectedly while I was in town with Chloe running errands and preparing for our trip last week. The Grandmother of the baby brought him for help because the mother is not doing well physically and couldn't travel. We will go and check on her today. Thankfully I had an emergency diaper bag in the back of my car, packed with love by Lori Marschall for "such a time as this". Baby Nathan was born on January 5, 2013 and he is now home at El Roi. That's the good news.

Now for the bad news.

This past month I have learned four very bad words:Multi-drug Resistant Tuberculosis (MDR
TB).Maybe it’s only three words,
but they are words that I had never heard in my whole life until I met the
young woman whom I will call “Nomsa” – the mother of our twin girls Leah and
Rachel.

If you read my blog dated December 15th you will
remember how I met this young woman.It was a desperate and heartbreaking meeting as she handed her precious
3-week old babies to me from the back of an ambulance and then tried to be
brave through her TB mask while tears of sorrow and regret poured out of her
eyes.I didn’t think I would see
her again because she was going to the National TB hospital to die.She borrowed a cell phone at the
hospital and called me that same night to see how her babies were doing. I
immediately liked her and thought that I should plan to visit her in the New
Year. My visits have now become a weekly event and usually the high point and
the low point of my week.

Nomsa has Multi-drug Resistant Tuberculosis and is
“co-infected” with HIV.She
is very very sick and has a long and difficult road ahead if she is to live.

When I first went to see Nomsa I had to find my way to the TB hospital. I had never been to
(or heard of) this place, but it was easy to find.It is a huge, multi-building facility that was built in 2009
to provide a safe place to treat this highly infectious disease away from the
general population.The buildings
are well maintained, very open (lots of ventilation) and sterile, as one might
expect.

There is a guard at the front gate (not sure if he is to
keep people in or out) and once you pass him you move on past the mortuary
sitting prominently near the entrance (also with a guard outside - ??).Just down from the Mortuary is the
Women’s Ward.After you enter, you
put on a paper mask and then find your way to the patient you are seeing.

The first time I visited Nomsa there were ten women in the
ward with her.She is 24-years old
and most of them were around the same age, except for the 12-year old who was
the youngest one there.Each of
these women are in for very aggressive treatment which includes 18 pills at 10
AM every day followed by a very painful injection in the hip.They get 4 more pills at 10 PM and
those are there MDR-TB medication.All of the patients are “co-infected” so they are all HIV positive and
are automatically put on Anti-retroviral medication as soon as they arrive IF
they are stable enough to endure it.

This treatment is done for a MINIMUM of six months and can
last up to two years.The
treatment has terrible side effects including daily violent vomiting, total
hearing loss and psychosis.While
we all read the possible side effects of various medications that we take, we
rarely see those side effects manifest themselves.In this case, many (maybe even most) have the side effects
of these drugs.It seems that they
all spend time vomiting after their meds.Of the ten women in the ward on my first day, half of them were totally
deaf and my friend Nomsa has ringing in her ears after only a month of
treatment.Of the ten women in the
ward, four of them had extreme psychosis and would yell out for help, talk to
invisible people, crawl around naked on the floor or urinate on the floor in
front of you

I have been to the hospital to visit Nomsa six times in the
past month and I have not yet seen one other person visiting in the ward. I have seen the odd person standing
outside, distant from the patients so as not to catch anything. (It reminded me
of the scene in the Valley of the Lepers in the movie “Ben Hur” when people
would hide behind rocks and peek at their loved ones from afar too afraid to go
near.I can’t say I blame them).Inside the ward there is no radio, no
tv, no books, no sound, no calendar to mark the day, no color and a lot of
death.But it is clean, appears to
be professionally run and is clearly the only hope these patients have of
survival.

On Friday I stopped in for a quick visit and to let her know
that I would be away for the next two weeks traveling.I took her some much needed protein and
prayed that she would be alive when I returned.MDR-TB patients who are also HIV positive can take a bad
turn and die in a matter of weeks.In fact of the ten patients who were there at the beginning of the
month, five of them have died.

On Wednesday my friend Wendy was here from the US
volunteering to distribute TOMS Shoes and help out at the El Roi baby
home.We had to take Leah and
Rachel in to be tested to see if they contracted MDR-TB so Wendy agreed to go
in and spend some time visiting/ministering to/encouraging Nomsa while we took
the babies to be x-rayed.The twins
test was negative so we believe they do not have TB and now can come out of the
isolation room at the El Roi Baby home and join the rest of the family.

Nomsa looking at her twins from a distance. A very moving and difficult moment.

When we went back to pick Wendy up I took my usual walk
around the ward to visit and encourage some of the women there.There was one woman who had been very
sick the past few weeks. She was just skin and bones and lay naked with her
boney arm stretching out to us for help. Her eyes were stretched open wide and
white as snow.She cried out to us
and said, “Help me!I am dying!”It was a horrific plea from a woman who
had no hope left in life. We held her hand, rubbed her arm and tried to comfort
her with words that seemed empty, but Nomsa reminded us that the woman was
totally deaf from the treatment and couldn’t hear us. We had large protective
masks on so she couldn’t see us smile or read our lips as we prayed wit
her.We all tried to smile with
our eyes and prayed to God to help her.When I returned yesterday, she too had died.Nomsa said when the time came for the woman to pass away she
started wailing and screaming.Nomsa said it was terrifying, and then she was silent.It was over.

While my heart ached for Nomsa and the other women in the
ward who have now seen six women die horrific deaths in the past month, I can’t
even begin to imagine how the 12-year old girl is processing and surviving this
all.Please pray for her and the
others who are fighting for their lives.

We had the great privilege of meeting one of the founding
Doctors at this hospital. He was more than helpful, informative, educative and
very willing to help us in any way that he possibly could.I look forward to continue learning
from this man as we continue on this journey together.

As I was waking up a few mornings ago I had a random thought
float through my head.I recalled
the book “Tuesday’s with Morrie” and wondered if Nomsa might be willing to allow
me write a blog called “Wednesday’s with Nomsa”.To me, Nomsa represents the women of Swaziland.She has lived in poverty, but had hopes
and dreams. She found love and then lost it. She had babies, and then had to
give them away. She was a vibrant, smart, educated young woman and then became
infected with HIV due to choices that she made or were made for her.There are so many layers to the social
situations happening here in Swaziland that maybe we could peel back many of
them and take a peak inside through this one bright young woman.

I have asked her if she would allow me to sit with her every
second Wednesday and write her story.She is thinking about it while I travel. I hope that you, the reader,
might be interested in doing a little more reading every other week and go with
Nomsa and I on this journey.It
won’t be pretty, but hopefully will be insightful.

On Tuesday Chloe and I will get on a plane and head to Asia
for two weeks. We will spend several days in Taiwan visiting the Morrison
Academy where Chloe will attend school in August. Then we will head to Japan to
officially launch HEART FOR AFRICA –JAPAN. I look forward to sharing all that
God has done and is doing in Swaziland with our friends in Asia, but I will be
happy to get back home to visit my friend Nomsa again.Please join me in praying for health
and safety as we go our different direction this week.

Saturday, January 12, 2013

On Thursday I got a call from a Social Worker at a local
hospital saying that there was another case of rape and the 17-year old girl
couldn’t possibly care for the baby that had been born that morning.Fortunately some of our friends and
family signed up to give monthly to support the El Roi Baby Home over the
Christmas holidays so I was able to say “YES” when asked if I could pick up the
baby on Monday.That baby would be
#23 and what a gift to have a team of volunteers here with us to celebrate his
arrival!.

Then late Friday afternoon I got a call about another
newborn baby boy, this time from a different hospital in a different part of
the country.His mother is
26-years old and is in and out of the psychiatric hospital with many voices
talking in her head.Her own mother
kicked her out of the house when she came home pregnant, but would welcome her
back without a baby.Could we take
him?The answer was “yes” and he
would be baby #24.

So baby #23 actually will be baby #24 when we go to pick him
up on Monday.

When does it end?What is our maximum?I am
often asked those questions by well-intentioned people from North America, but I
am never asked that question by my Swazi or Kenyan co-workers or family.Not ever.Why is that?I
think it is because they have been there when a baby is found or when a baby
shows up starving to death or having been burned or left on the side of the
road.It’s great to build
spreadsheets and set goals, but at the end of the day we must prayerfully say
yes to any and all babies that El Roi (the God who Sees) sends to us.I am not sure how I will say “no”, if
and when that day comes.

I am thankful to each and every person who supports Heart
for Africa and the El Roi home for abandoned babies.I have no doubt that El Shaddai(Our Provider) will continue to provide for these little
ones.I could not do my job
without you and I can’t imagine not doing what I do.I love my job, my calling and am eternally thankful to have
been given this gift.

Taking the baby to the car to bring him home.

Early this morning we drove to Siteki to pick up the 4-day
old baby boy, named Asher (means “Happy”) we stopped to drop food off to the
homestead with 15 children living with no caregiver, whom I write about often.A dear friend from Missouri dropped
money off at the US office yesterday and asked me to buy them some food.Last week I took Manna Packs and 10 KG
of rice, which should have been sufficient for a month. Today I brought
bananas, bread, oil, onions, potatoes, squash and other fresh food. We even
brought plastic plates and cups because the children all eat out of the hot
cooking pot with bare hands.Today, I discovered that the food I left last week had been stolen by a
19-year old “Auntie”.Nice
eh?I am so angry. But
that fight is for another day.

15 children living with no adult to provide for them.

Our last stop before getting Asher home was at the National
Tuberculosis Hospital.My young
friend (Leah & Rachel’s mother) asked if I could bring her some
mayonnaise.Mayonnaise?Yes, because she said the food was
inedible and she thought mayonnaise might help.When I walked in her room I found a young woman lying naked,
face down on the concrete floor.She couldn’t have weighed more than 70 pounds and was skin and
bone.I was shocked and asked my
friend if she was alive. She said yes, and shook her head. She said, “She is
very sick and has gone mad. She refuses to lie on her mattress so lies here
until they come and put her back.”Minutes later two people came in with masks on (to protect from the TB),
then put on rubber gloves and lifted/dragged the lifeless body back to her
mattress on the floor. That is a vision that will never leave my head, and I am
thankful that our volunteers stayed in the car with the new baby.

That’s all for today, I am a bit weary and weepy and it is
time to sit on the patio, look at the beauty that God has created and give
thanks.

Saturday, January 5, 2013

Happy New Year from the Maxwell family at Project Canaan, Swaziland! I am incredibly thankful for my beautiful family
being together over the Christmas holidays. May the year 2013 bring you joy, peace and love.

______________________________________________________________

Some of you have asked me privately what I struggle with
and/or how you can pray for me?My
first answer is usually asking for prayer for El Roi funding so that we never
have to turn away a baby in need.But today I have a different request based on several women I spent time
with this week.

Being a girl or a woman in Africa is very hard.Females are not valued as males are
valued, but they are the backbone of most African cultures and societies.I remember reading a statistic that 75%
of all food that is planted, grown, harvested, prepared and put on the table to
eat on the whole continent of Africa is done by women.Women are beasts of burden and are also
responsible for fetching water (many miles away), giving birth, raising
children and providing love and care for the entire extended family. In
Swaziland and the woman is also responsible for building the home that the
family lives in (typically made from sticks, rock, mud and grass).Their bodies are not their own (often used by male family
members) and their real value is in the number of cattle or goats they are
“worth” when it comes time for “lobola” to be paid for their hand in marriage.

I have met several young women in the past few months who
have really impressed me, even through the tragic situations that brought us together.They
seem to want to break the cycle of poverty, but it is virtually impossible to
do in a country that doesn’t value women, has an unemployment rate of 70% and where sex is the easiest and quickest way to provide food for your children (or yourself).

I am really struggling with this because I want to help
these young women, but don’t know how to do it and don’t have the funding to do
it at this time.Let me tell you a short
version of three stories from this week. Some of these you may be familiar with
if you are a regular blog reader.

Woman #1 – She is 30-years old, has 8 children, is HIV
positive and has been in the woman’s prison multiple times over the years
because she steals food to feed her children.She is now in prison for three more years.Her youngest ones (age eight months and
the other is two years) are living in prison with her.The next five (ages eleven years to
three years) are living alone with no food, no clothing, no adult care.We have been working with police, Social
Welfare and the Correctional facility for seven months to try to get assistance
for the little baby in the prison and the young ones living alone.This continues to seem like a hopeless
situation, but we haven’t given up hope yet.While we are trying to provide a medium-term solution for
her children’s care while she is incarcerated, the question remains how she
will be able to care for them when she is released in 2015?She would like to live and work at
Project Canaan, but we have no housing or facilities for her at this time.

Baby Hope

Woman #2 – She is 26-years old and is the mother of two-year
old twin boys.She was violently
raped in 2012 and after several failed attempts at aborting the child she
recently gave birth to a beautiful girl, who now lives at the El Roi baby home.She is a hard worker (she cleans at a
local factory) and tries to provide the best care she can for her twins on her
$100 US per month salary.She
recently discovered that her boys are being neglected (to say the least) by the
woman caring for them while the mother works 12-hour shifts.She would love to come and live at
Project Canaan and work on the farm or in the baby home, but we have nowhere
for her to live and no one to care for her twin boys. Her own parents kicked
her out of the homestead when they heard she had been raped because they didn’t
believe her story and believed she was just being promiscuous.The father of the twins is unemployed
and refuses to help with the boys.She is stuck.And I am
stuck because I want to hire her, but I have nowhere for her to live with her
little ones.

Leah and Rachel

Woman #3 – She is 24-years old, is HIV positive and has
active Tuberculosis. She has given birth to five children - one single birth, a
set of girl twins and another set of twin girls on November 19th
(which just happens to be my birthday).The first three children are being raised by their fathers parents.The new twins live at El Roi and were
brought to us by the Social Welfare department when the young mother was being
taken to the National TB (Tuberculosis) hospital.She is deathly ill and could not begin to care for her
newborn babies in her mud room home.She has what is called DR-TB – Drug Resistant Tuberculosis and is a
sanitarium that is designed for acute cases of this highly infectious
killer.Each day she gets 18 pills
at 10AM as well as an injection in her boney hip.At 10PM she gets four more pills.When I asked how she got in to this situation her simple
reply is “bad behavior – and it will not happen again.”IF she responds well to this
treatment and IF she lives she will reside at this TB Hospital for the next six
months to two years. Each and every day she will receive the 22 pills and
injection in order to save her life.She was quick to tell me that she is trusting in the healing power of
Jesus more than she is trusting in the medicine, which makes her vomit
violently and often results in long term effects like loss of speech or
psychosis.If and when she gets
well, she wants to come and live at Project Canaan and learn to make jewelry
and sew.But right now we have nowhere
for her to live when she is health again.

All three of these women have become my friends.I visit them as often as I can and think
of them and pray for them daily. But each day my heart gets heavier and heavier
for them.They remain hopeful
about their futures, while I stand in awe of their hopefulness.My hearts desire is to be able to help
these girls/women just as we can help their babies.I know we can’t “save them all”, but maybe we can help the
one who is right in front of our eyes; the one who look through the prison bars
and ask for help to save her children’s lives, the one who stands against a mud
wall and shares her fear about her babies being abused by a caregiver while she
works, the one who looks over her Tuberculosis mask and thanks you for caring
for her twins.

Next week I will blog about my visit to the National
Tuberculosis hospital.It was a
shocking and life-changing experience for me and I want to do some research
before I write next week so that I can best articulate what I saw and what is
happening here in Swaziland with AIDS and TB.

Please join me in praying for these three women and all the
others of millions of women who are suffering every day.May the God Who Sees us all provide His
hand of protection and provision as only He can do.